Louisiana's public high school graduation rate is improving but continues to lag behind the rest of the United States. According to a report released Monday, the country's public schools have reached a milestone of an 80 percent graduation rate, with Louisiana at 72.3 percent.

The report, using data from 2012 for Louisiana, stated that researchers are now projecting a 90 percent national graduation rate by 2020. For Louisiana, this would require increasing its graduate cohort by about 2.2 percent every year.

The report was created by the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, America's Promise Alliance, the Alliance for Excellent Education and Civic Enterprises, a public policy firm. It was mostly based on data from 2012 gathered from the U.S. Department of Education.

How do New Orleans area and Baton Rouge area school systems compare? See their graduation rates.

For graduation rates of all Louisiana public school systems, visit this page.